The European Physical Journal B (EPJ B)

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Eur. Phys. J. B 7, 67-77

Unified quantum mechanical picture for confined spinons
in dimerized and frustrated spin $\mathsf$ chains

G.S. Uhrig¹ - F. Schönfeld¹ - M. Laukamp² - E. Dagotto²

¹ Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Straße 77, 50937 Köln, Germany
² National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA
gu@thp.uni-koeln.de

Received: 8 May 1998 / Revised and Accepted: 12 August 1998

Abstract
A quantum mechanical picture is presented to describe the behavior of confined spinons in a variety of S=1/2 chains. The confinement is due to dimerization and frustration and it manifests itself as a nonlinear potential $V(x)\propto \vert x\vert^b$ , centered at chain ends ( $b\le 1$ ) or produced by modulation kinks (b> 1). The calculation extends to weak or zero frustration some previous ideas valid for spinons in strongly frustrated spin chains. The local magnetization patterns of the confined spinons are calculated. A (minimum) enhancement of the local moments of about 11/3 over a single S=1/2 is found. Estimates for excitation energies and binding lengths are obtained.

PACS
64.70.Kb Solid-solid transitions - 75.10.Jm Quantized spin models - 75.50.Ee Antiferromagnetics

Contents

Unified quantum mechanical picture for confined spinons in dimerized and frustrated spin chains

Unified quantum mechanical picture for confined spinons
in dimerized and frustrated spin $\mathsf$ chains